Don DeLillo and the Library of America

 A writer I knew of but did not read before prison was Don DeLillo. There I read Underworld and Libra, thanks to Joel C. I would recommend either, but Libra is shorter.

The Library of America provided an interview, Mark Osteen on the apocalyptic satire and historical panorama of Don DeLillo, in support of the Library's new collection of DeLillo:

LOA: LOA put out an edition of DeLillo’s novels of the 1980s last year and will publish an edition of his ’90s novels this coming fall. How did DeLillo’s work evolve through these decades? Can we see traces of the ambition and thematic range of Underworld in earlier works like The Names?

Mark Osteen: Underworld is the novel where the manifold strains in DeLillo’s previous work interlock and expand. This synthesis is novel, yet the thematic threads woven into this magnum opus are apparent not only in his 1980s work but in his earlier fiction as well. In fact, The Names itself marks a departure—embodying what DeLillo has called a “new seriousness”—that sets it apart from his early novels, even while it displays renewed attention to themes that he had introduced in those books, such as terrorism (Players, 1977) and ascetic rituals (End Zone, 1972; Running Dog, 1978).

Underworld provides a broader canvas for concerns that DeLillo has engaged with throughout his career. For example, the novel’s analysis of the apocalyptic menace of the atomic age appeared first in End Zone, where the protagonist becomes fascinated with nuclear war strategy, and of course the theme of waste shows up dramatically in White Noise, where Jack Gladney reflects upon his household’s trash. Underworld’s Fresh Kills Landfill is the Gladney garbage writ large: multiply their waste by millions and you build a veritable mountain of rubbish. Likewise, the “airborne toxic event” scene in White Noise prefigures Underworld’s attention to the dire consequences of consumerism: our products return to us as deadly poisons. Further, Underworld’s mixing of fictional characters and real people is presaged in Libra. That novel’s brilliant structure and sweep also forecast Underworld’s enormous scope.

###

LOA: What underread or underappreciated DeLillo work would you recommend to readers who might only be familiar with White Noise or Underworld?

Osteen: DeLillo is best known—rightly so—for the five novels from the 1980s and ’90s. To someone who has read only White Noise and Underworld, I’d say: now read Libra. Although it is not exactly underappreciated, it’s the natural next step for anyone who enjoyed Underworld: the earlier novel has something of the later book’s ambition and scope, and also portrays both fictional and real-life characters. Of course, many Americans remain fascinated by the Kennedy assassination, and this is the best novel, by far, about the tragedy. Perhaps its most outstanding feature is its portrayal of Lee Oswald, who comes across as a complex and fascinating person: not a villain or a monster, but an ambitious, confused, and exploited young man.

I agree with Mr. Osteen, I cannot recall any of the characters of Underworld - it is too broad for that, maybe - but Libra's Oswald does stick in my mind. 

sch 4/22